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Scott Summers lost his Sentinel, Jean Grey, in the mission that left him blind, and he's blamed himself ever since.
Now he wants nothing to do with Sentinels—especially not Logan, a reckless disaster with a death wish.
Logan thinks Scott has a hero complex; Scott thinks Logan is one bad day from collapse.
Then a Wish Baby shows up and decides they belong together.
Chapter 4
“What’s more waiting for them?” Hank asked.
Charles only raised his eyebrow and smile, “You’ll see.”
Scott could feel the vibration from the floor, he could feel there is something going on.
“What’s going on?” Scott asked.
“The scene is changing.” Logan replied.
“To what?”
“There is darkness, a figure is walking toward the building, and then everything turned into chaos.” Logan answered as he observed the scene.
“What do you mean?” Scott asked, swallowed the lump down his throat, there was something about the scene that he didn’t want to relive it.
“Scott, you are in the building after it was collapsing on you,” Charles spoke, making a barrier between Logan and Scott, placing Scott in the building as he arranged the holograms, “Logan, you’ll need to help to come out from the rubble, find a way to save the guide and the figure inside.”
“Who is in there?” Logan asked, not knowing about the figure.
“That’s for you to figure it out.” Charles said.
Charles’s words left them in the dark, literally.
Logan sighed deeply, and started worked his way to find the figure and the guide.
Scott could feel the blocks lay heavy on his body, he tried to move them, but that was unsuccessfully, His cane was nowhere to be found, and his eyeglasses was not on his face, he had a grim knowledge of the situation, cause that already happened to him before.
‘Scott…’
It was Jean’s voice that startled him.
His voice was weak and shaken as he called her back, “Jean… where are you?”
‘I’m over here, Scott.’ Jean called for him.
Easier said than done, he was blind, all he could see was darkness, breathing dust and no helps come for him.
Logan entered of what remain from the building, he focused on his hearing sense, as he heard the faint sound of Scott calling for Jean, but he couldn’t locate him.
Logan turned around, glaring above toward Charles and Hank that were monitoring him and Scott, it made him believe that the scenario is what the professor wants to see how they dealt with, there was something about this scene that reminds him of what he heard of the rumors about Jean’s death, and he didn’t like it at all.
“Scott, do you hear my voice?” Logan asked loudly, hope that the guide will hear his voice.
“Jean…” Scott called, stuck in the scene, that he couldn’t hear the Sentinel’s voice.
“Guide Scott.” Logan called, as he was on his knees trying to remove each stone and throwing it away, hope to find Scott, not knowing in which conditions the professor programmed it.
The radio wasn’t working, he could hear the static noise that came from it, and then Scott’s voice.
Logan sighed, figured that maybe Scott doesn’t know that from his radio, it’s working and record his voice.
“Jean, where are you?” Scott called, his voice cracked.
Logan picked more stones and throws them away quickly, he could hear the fainted heartbeats, Scott’s vitals seemed dropping fast and the Sentinel didn’t know if it was because of the evaluation scene or there was something more to it, something deeper that maybe the Guide is hiding about of what happened that caused Sentinel Jean her life.
“I’m dead, weren’t I?” Scott called, figuring that if he heard Jean’s voice, his life was over, and there is not need for Logan to be there, the evaluation.
“Scott, what are you talking about?” Logan called, he could see something underneath the pile he removed.
Scott knows immediately.
He could barely hears Jean anymore, there was nothing but dust and pain that he felt as he moved his hands.
“Leave.” He called through the radio, he failed the evaluation, he is no need to get Logan under the bus cause he failed it.
“No.” Logan called, he could see Scott now very clearly.
Scott was pinned to the floor, his leg was impaired, the blood, he could almost taste it, it was strong, he could see the pool of blood surrounding the Guide.
“I’m dead.”
“No.”
“You pass if you leave.”
“I don’t care.”
Scott gets angry. “You don’t throw away your life for an evaluation.”
Logan answers quietly. “I’m not throwing it away.”
Logan added, “I’m saving my Guide.”
Scott almost snaps, “I’m NOT your Guide.”
The heartbeats were now growing stronger.
Logan replies, “You are right now.”
The silence now spoke in volumes as Logan noticed Scott of what left from the rubble around him.
The rubble was unstable as Logan tears through concrete.
His hands were bleeding.
Metal bending. Artificial debris still weighs hundreds of pounds.
Scott listens to every breath, every grunt, and realizes that Logan is exhausting himself.
“Stop lifting.”
“No.”
“You’ve dislocated your shoulder.”
“…Probably.”
“Your breathing changed.”
“…You hear too much.”
Scott almost smiles. “I always have.”
Logan lifts another beam.
Scott remembers Jean.
Jean always smiled before doing something reckless.
Logan doesn’t smile. He just keeps working.
Difference that Scott finds interesting.
Jean trusted Scott to survive.
Logan refuses to let Scott die.
Then Scott realizes— no Sentinel has ever fought this hard for him except Jean.
The realization terrifies him.
“Evaluation complete.”
The lights were on, as Logan lay Scott on the ground, and adjusts his eyes toward the light.
“I need a medic here, he already lost so much blood.” Logan called for help as he moved out of the collapsing building.
“Scott is not in any life threats, even though the pain might feel real.” Hank said as he walked through the doors, removing the vitals and the radios that been monitoring them.
“He was impaired with a steel in his leg, how could he not lost blood?” Logan questioned, his voice was raw with anger and concern.
“It was only a hologram.” Charles’s voice lingered in the background, observing the scene in front of him.
Hank nodded.
Charles entered and said to Logan, “You failed the evaluation, you needed to save two people, but you ended saved only one.”
“The other was a ghost, you can’t save the dead, but I did save the Guide.” Logan said, he was angry about the whole scenario.
“That you did.” Hank said.
Scott rose from the ground, he could feel the cane in his hands as Hank gave it to him, and then on his other hand, Hank gave him the shade eyeglasses.
Scott thanked him, before he said toward the professor, “It is I who failed the evaluation, I died, and Logan was the one that didn’t give up as he continued to rescue me, even though he ignored my orders to leave me.”
The professor exchanged glances with Hank as he smiled at him.
“What’s going on?” Scott asked, as he waited for the professor’s call or something to say to him, but there was nothing.
“Go home Scott.” The professor only said.
Chapter 5
Scott let out a breath he didn’t know that he was holding, he had the feeling that whatever the professor is doing even letting him back to work after of what happened, might be only temporary, and the evaluation justify it.
Scott walked in resignation toward the door, he got nothing else to do, his career as a Guide was over, maybe sleeping will help.
The Sentinel watched the Guide walking, he could hear past the lines that the Guide told to the professor, taking all the blame and letting him to pass his first evaluation ever.
“Charles, it’s not his fault,” Logan said, glancing toward the Guide, Summers was gone, “he walks quickly despite being blind.”
“Scott learns to adjust being blind, course he had some rough time to the situation, but he learns to live through it and didn’t let the blind to conquer him. He is much stronger than you think he is, Logan.” Hank said, feeling protected toward his friend.
Logan nodded and then he hurried outside, hoping to catch Summers before he will gone.
“Are you pleased with the results?” Hank questioned Charles.
“Now, I have.” Charles said, pleased with the results about the evaluation and after the evaluation was over.
“Did you have to tell Scott to go home? Is that mean that he is no longer the Senior Guide in your school?” Hank asked.
“Yes, it was needed, and about his future as a Guide, it’s over, at least for now, he is still reliving the past of Jean’s death, he is not over it.” Charles replied in dim voice.
“You are doing a grim mistake my friend, let’s hope that maybe the Sentinel Logan will find him, before you will lose him all over again.” Hank said with a hint of warning, it was hard for him to pick up the pieces which Charles broke once.
Scott walked outside the school, just wanted to leave as fast as he could.
“Summers, wait!” Logan called and hurried toward him.
“What do you want, Logan?” Scott asked, turning toward the voice.
“It wasn’t your fault, and you shouldn’t take the heat for my failure in the test.” Logan said, moving his hands toward the Guide’s arms, feeling the muscles underneath it.
“It was, you know it, and the professor knows it,” Scott said, not moving away from Logan’s touch, as he added, “I wasn’t acted professionally, I let the past guides me wrong, and I failed.”
“No, you’re not,” Logan said, cupped Summers’s cheek with his hand, feeling the longing in the guide’s face as he did, “You were the only Guide that trusted me, no matter the cost, you knew my past and you guide me when I zoned out, and no one ever did that to me.”
“That means that you have human feelings just like I have, and you are freely now to have the guide you want, and that’s what the evaluation shows about you,” Scott said and then he added, “now I really must to go home.”
Logan removed his hands from Scott, though he had to admit, having Summers was somehow comforting, he gave him the feeling of safety once in his life, and that was something he always yearned to have.
“Scott, thank you.” Logan blurted out the words as he could see the guide adjusted his clothes and wipes any emotion from his face.
Scott only nodded, and was preparing to cross the road.
Logan started to walk back toward the Sentinel and Guide school as there was a screech behind of him, as a van pulled out near Guide Scott.
“SCOTT!!!” Logan shouted, and run toward him, but failed as he lost saving the Guide.
The only thing that was on the ground was Scott’s broken cane, and his shade eyeglasses left on the ground smashed as only the frame left from it.
Logan felt like he lost something very important to him as he collected of what left on the ground and walked angrily toward the mansion.
Hank was the first one to notice what Logan was holding in his hands as the Sentinel walked in and his expression was not good, he was glaring and his claws were open, ready to attack.
“Why do you have Scott’s things? Where’s Scott?” Hank asked him.
“What’s going on, Logan?” Hank asked after he didn’t get any response.
Charles moved his wheelchair, and asked, “Logan, what is the meaning of this?”
“Scott, I mean, Senior Guide Scott been kidnapped, and there was nothing I could do about it,” Logan answered, throwing Scott’s things toward the professor before he continued, “If you didn’t let go of Scott, he might be here and not taking by whoever it was, my guess that it is because of what happened with Jean.”
“What do you mean by that, my friend?” Hank questioned and could see other mutants gathered closer.
“Maybe rouge Sentinels wants revenge considering the rumors of Scott being the one that killed his sentinel.” Logan replied.
“Let me get this straight, cause I could tell before you even met Scott, you believed the rumors, and now you don’t? What changed between you two?” Hank asked.
“Yeah, you two were oil and water.” Storm said, it was hard missing the hurtful words even though it was only one-sided.
“The evaluation, it opened my eyes.” Logan said.
Chapter 6
“Why didn’t you go after him?” The professor asked.
“The ones who kidnapped him, were only pawns, I don’t know why he was kidnapped in the first place, but my intuition said that it was about Scott’s past that linked with Jean.” Logan replied, his eyes fierced, trying to focus on Scott, trying to locate him with his senses.
“No success finding him?” The professor asked.
“No, like there was something blocking me, but I’ll try to follow with my nose, I already got his scent.” Logan said.
“The scenting is only temporary, he is not your guide yet, and if you want him to be your guide, you need to claim as yours, since you already scented him, you need to hurry if you want to find him, who knows what they are going to do with him once they are done.” Charles said.
The realization of what Charles spoke, Logan has a determination to track the Guide.
“Where are you going?” Storm asked.
“Finding him.” Logan replied.
“Wait, we can help, team is better than going alone, Logan.” Storm reminded him.
“Let’s go, I’ll take the red bike from the garage and you’ll follow me in your cars or in the air, whatever suiting you.” Logan said, as he walked toward the garage.
“Do you know to whom the red bike belonged to?” Charles asked, seemed pleased to himself as he only grinned toward Logan.
“How do you even know about the red bike?” Bobby asked.
“I saw it in my mind.” Logan replied.
“Scott made a contact with you, telepathic, I believe.” Charles said, looked now even more pleased with himself.
“That means he is in either bad shape or something happened that caused him to open the link.” Hank elaborated, his face turned to grim.
Scott was tied to a chair, he could feel his wrists been cut by the ropes as his abductors secured him roughly.
“What do you want from me?” Scott asked, wished he could see their faces so he could get revenge them after he will try to run, though considering his blindness, he was trapped, there is no Sentinel who will come and save him.
“Where is the gold?” one of them asked him.
“What gold? And who are you?” Scott asked back, and in return he got punched in his face, he could feel the pain in his nose, figuring that maybe his nose was broken, he could feel the bleeding dripping to his mouth as he tasted the blood.
“You don’t need to know who we are, that’s not your business, we just want the gold!”
“I don’t know where’s the gold, and what gold you are talking about.” Scott said.
“Did you find anything?” A voice behind them, sound firm.
“No, he either lying to protect his sentinel or he is telling the truth.”
Scott tried to monitor to himself, of how many abductors are in the room and trying to decide who was the boss, and who are the soldiers who following orders for the leader.
“Why is he not blindfolded?” The man asked, and Scott figured that he was the leader for the group that kidnapped him.
“He is blind, we wrecked his cane and smashed his eyeglasses, besides I don’t think he is mutant, he came from the Guide mansion.” One of them said.
“He could be faking it, it doesn’t mean that he couldn’t see,” The man said and then he asked, “Did you make sure that no one followed you?”
“We made sure that no one followed us, we even switched the vans in one point.” One of them answered proudly.
“Start with plan B, until we will get the results, if we don’t the Sentinel will get the Guide in pieces, literally.” The leader spoke.
Scott swallowed the lump down his throat, hoping to survive whatever they are planning for him, cause he sure doesn’t have a clue about gold, the gold for him only preference for pirates, at least for the stories and leaving on the streets, it was he all he knew about it.
“Got any lead?” Storm asked him as they took the blackbird, figured it will be faster to locate the missing Guide.
“No, I think that I lost his scent, but…” Logan said, and holds his head, his face was hurt, and he didn’t know why, the voice in his head was growing, “I could hear voices now in my head, that never happened to me, with any guide that I had.”
“That’s a huge development, Logan,” Hank said, and then he asked, “What voice you hear? Does it say something for you to follow?”
Logan tried to concentrate about the voice, knowing that he got no eyes to see where the voice, but he understood, that it might be Scott the one that speaking to him.
“Yes, something about the gold, and my face is hurt.” Logan mumbled, not knowing of how to stop the pain, the pain was enormous, he could feel his nose hurt, as he touch his nose, it was fine.
“What’s wrong?” Kurt asked, not knowing what Logan is doing.
“I could feel my nose bone breaks, but when I touch my nose, I’m fine.” Logan replied, and then he turned to ask Hank, “What is going on, and tell me the truth!”
“If Scott telepathist with you, and you can feel his pain, I believe that you two found yourself, but the question that you both need to ask yourself, after the all ordeal, if you will remain together under the same roof.” Hank answered, hoped that his answer will satisfy Logan.
“That mean, that during the evaluation, you recognized him as your Guide, and whatever you did after you left the mansion, might developed something deep between you two.” Rouge explained as she observed Logan’s face, she could see his face, she had a feeling that he might doubting himself about it, considering his past experiences with past Guides.
Logan remembered the way he touched Scott and the fact that the Guide not moving away from his touch.
Oh.
Chapter 7
“Start with plan B, I’ll supervise you this time.” The leader spoke.
Scott tried to call for help, he was bound, his position changed from the chair to something as he stood, got no way that he could untie himself.
He was in big trouble, and probably will end up dead somewhere, that no one will care to take a look, knowing that he won’t get a proper grave too, he was no one important.
“You know, I hear when you are grinding the skin the pain is very great, and when you pour the salt in the wounds, the pain is even greater.” One of them said.
“I only saw about it in some shows, but it’s a great time to check if that’s works.” The other agreed with the plan.
The leader scowled at them as they kept chatting.
“Stop with this nonsense and start to work!” The leader ordered them.
Scott could feel his hand and then the cold steel before they started grinded the skin, he was trying to prepare himself for the pain, he was caught off guard, the pain was beyond of what he figured it will be.
He screamed, and in some point, the gag placed in his mouth, as his voice was muffled by it.
Logan holds his hand, trying to concentrate about the voice, that screaming for help, as the pain was something else.
“What’s happening now?” Hank asked, taking notes of what’s happening to figure of how to take care of Scott when they’ll find him, as he catalogued the injuries based on Logan’s act.
“My hand, there is something wrong with it, and the pain, the pain isn’t something I was prepared for.” Logan called, trying to calm down the Guide, but it wasn’t working, as Scott kept screaming for pain and for help with no avail.
“I don’t know how to help him,” Logan said, and then he continued, “He sounded bad, and I don’t know how to ease the pain or calm him down.”
“If you can’t sense that they are above ground, then maybe they are hiding underground?” Kurt asked.
“Did you find the van?” Logan asked, used the mic to radio to Angel.
“No, there was nothing of the van, you saw, any idea what color it was? Maybe I can eliminate some before we stormed in?” Angel asked.
“I think it was white, but they may switched cars or something,” Logan answered, knowing it wasn’t a good call on his part, he should have follow him, instead watching as the van sped up, leaving nothing but a trail of dust.
“Any idea where underground we should start the perimeter to check out?” Hank asked as Storm landed the jet and made it invisible.
“No, got no clue about it,” Logan said, and then he suggested, “I can try and ask Scott through the link.”
<Scott, do you hear me?> Logan asked.
There was a silence and Logan was about to call it quit, maybe it only worked one-sided, and then there was a reply from the Guide.
<Logan, what are you doing in my head? How can you hear me?> Scott asked, at least there was something to distract him from the pain.
<I don’t know, life is a mystery, and according to Hank, there is a connection between us.> Logan explained.
<Okay, what do you need?> Scott asked.
<I need your ears, can you tell me what are you hearing? We are trying to locate you.>
<I don’t see the point, I will end up dead anyway.> Scott said sadly.
<Not if I can help with that, the whole team want to save you.> Logan said.
Scott could hear the cheering in his voice, thinking of the hope that it gave him, even though he was stranded and without a plan of how to be free.
<Don’t give up on us, on me Scott, let us help you.> Logan said calmly.
There was silence, this was something that Logan feared the most, he doesn’t know, what is going on, and hated being left in the dark.
<Scott, are you there?> Logan called.
<I’m okay, for now, just concentrate on my hearing, to guide you of where I am.> Scott said, trying to ignore the pain as they continued beating him, feeling like a doll, as he couldn’t move, his limbs were broken, he had that pain when he was a kid, living in the streets, he knows the pain of having his limbs broken, and yet it hurt him very much.
<It’s okay, you are going to be all right, Hank is cataloging the injuries.> Logan tried to comfort him.
<How is he going to do that?>
<Somehow, I can feel your pain.>
<Oh no….> Scott mumbled through the link.
<What?>
<That means that we are connected more than one way, just like happened to me with Jean…. I’m not ready for it after what happened, and I know that I’m the last Guide you want as a Sentinel.> Scott said, swallowing the lump as another round of grinding start in his arm as he bites his tongue as the pain was stabbing.
<We can talk about it, after we will save you. Griding you again?>
<Yes, my arm…> Scott said, trying to fight the pain and not wish to pass out, now that the team is trying to find him.
<What do you hear?> Logan questioned, want to find him now.
<I hear water, pounding above my head… I think I’m going to pass out… I can’t…> the line was disconnected.
“What’s going on?” Hank asked with concern.
“I don’t know, he just said that he was hearing water and pounding above his head, and then he said that he is going to pass out, I believe that his body couldn’t hold much longer with the torture that they are giving him.” Logan replied.